Speaking to a Grade 10 class

from a talk given to a Grade 10 'Philanthropy Class' in May 2009

Recently I attended a reception hosted by George Smitherman, who is the Deputy Premier of Ontario.
The reception was to celebrate Carmel Hili ‐ someone who had dedicated the last 35 years of his life working with Toronto’s poor and homeless communities, especially in the area of Regent Park.
Incredible tributes were given by people Carmel had worked with, politicians from both City Hall and the provincial government, but the most memorable speech was made by someone named John Caveney.
John is your vintage street person. When he gets up to speak people get a little worried. He can quickly turn a well‐ordered event into something chaotic.
He began his remarks by saying: ‘we have heard flowery speeches by some important people, politicians ‐ but what would God say about Carmel Hili?
Here’s what He would say:
I was hungry and you fed me
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink
I was a stranger and you invited me into your home
I was naked and you gave me clothing
I was sick and you cared for me
I was in prison and you visited me...'
Matthew 25:34-36

What you people have done in connecting with the various agencies of care in the Markham area is a good thing ‐ for both the agencies and for you. It can be one of those experiences that can be a ‘once only’ thing or it could be the beginning of something that shapes you for the rest of your life.
How many of you know what a gated community is?
Is every one welcome in a gated community?
Living here in Markham, do you live in a gated community ‐ not so much because there are actual gates protecting it, but the community has some unspoken rules to make sure that only a certain kind of people live here?
Are there any group homes on your street for those who have AIDS or live with mental health issues?
Would you describe the place you live, the club you belong to, the church or mosque you go to ‐ a gated community?
Each of us has our own reference points for understanding issues like poverty, homelessness, civil and religious wars, world hunger, foreign debt and the like.
Each of us are assisted in our understanding of these issues by our religious beliefs, or by humanitarian convictions or by people who for whatever reason ‘speak into our lives’ ‐ people like Obama, or Gandhi, or Oprah, or Bono from U2.
Since I come from a Christian church, it should come as no surprise to you that my reference points for understanding issues like poverty, homelessness, world hunger, is the life and teaching of Jesus.
Would you be surprised to learn that 2000 years ago, he spoke of ‘gated communities’?
In a parable he tells of a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in Hugo Boss and fine linen, who lived every day in luxury.
Outside his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus who was covered in sores. As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man’s table, the dogs would come and lick his open wounds. (see Luke 16:19‐21)

A couple of things to notice from the parable.
Only the poor man is given a name. Lazarus.
The rich man remains nameless.
From the vantage point of the story‐teller, only one name is worth remembering.
The name of the poor man.
Second ‐ although the story is about wealth and homelessness ‐ i.e. the indifference of the wealthy to the plight of the poor, Jesus reduces the issue to one rich guy and one poor guy.
Why?
Because whether we talking about poverty or world hunger, or the hoarding of the rich at the expense of the poor ‐ these issues are too big and overwhelming to take on if we try to take them on ‐ en masse ‐ rather than one person at a time.
Each of us has to start somewhere. Each of us has to find our own Lazarus and allow Lazarus to affect the way we live...
This is why I hope that your involvement in this Youth Philanthropy Initiative becomes more than a once only occurrence.
Some of you in the course of your career may make enough money to build hospital wings, institutions for the mentally ill and help fund affordable housing for people who otherwise couldn’t afford their own place to live.
But most of you will probably have enough trouble just making sure you have enough to provide for those you care for. You won’t have that much to give...
But you do.

If philanthropy is merely an exercise to helping the less fortunate by giving them money ‐ it is no more than a social welfare exercise which fosters dependence rather than self‐reliance, indignity rather than dignity...
If you have ever had the experience of standing in line at a food bank, or in a government office for social assistance, you know what a de‐humanizing experience that can be. Whether we are talking about clothing or money, hand me downs are no replacement for personal face to face contact with people in need.
Jesus didn’t tell the story of the rich man and Lazarus in the hope he could get rich people in the future to fund food banks and women shelters. That wasn’t his primary intent.
His primary intent was to get us to invite the poor people to eat at the table we eat at. He wants us to invite the homeless into our homes, the mentally ill into our communities...in other words ‐ to invite the Lazarus outside our gates into the privileges we enjoy, into the communities we live, into our circle of friends.
I remember sitting at a breakfast of business people and we were sharing with each other what our business objectives were.
The typical things were said ‐ I want to be a millionaire before I’m forty; I want to complete my doctorate in astrophysics; I want my teenage kids to like me; I want to retire before I’m sixty ‐ that kind of thing.
When it came for me to speak at first I didn’t know what to say. I had just quit my job at a big insurance company to work with my 3 brothers in the insurance business, and I was really having a tough go of it. I had just moved from a job where I got a regular salary to a job where it was commission only and frankly after 6 months on the job I had only made one sale which had generated a commission cheque of $400. Every day I was drawing on my line of credit and every day I was deeper in debt.
But I had also the emerging experience of making friends with some homeless people who hung outside Union Station ‐ guys named Karl and Harry, and a real off the wall guy called the Straw Man whose real name was Bruno.
There was an older man named Pops, who 10 years before had lost his wife and two kids in a car accident and had been living on the street ever since.
So turning to the others around the table, I said something which really surprised me at the time but has been my life ambition ever since ‐
‘I want to be so well known among the poor and homeless people, that they know me by name,
that they know me as someone who doesn’t walk pass them, who gives them more than spare change,
someone they know as a friend, as a guy who cares, so much so that they think me as ‘one of them’.
I share this story in the hope that it might also be your story...that regardless of whether you make millions or hundreds ‐ your primary objective in life will be to make certain that Lazarus ‐ the guy outside your gates ‐ knows you by name, is welcome at your table and has a chance to speak into your life in such a way that he or she not only affects where you give your money to, but who you devote your life to.